Harriet Bart
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BIO
Harriet Bart is a conceptual artist working across disciplines in a variety of media. Her large gallery installations, objects, and artist's books are embedded in cultural narratives that speak to the power of memory to inform and transform our lives. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, NEA Arts Midwest, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Since 2000, Bart has published fourteen fine-press books and won three Minnesota Book Awards. Her work is included in many museum, university, and private collections, including Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Weisman Art Museum, Jewish Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and Sackner Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry. She is a founding member of WARM: a women’s collective art space, and the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art in Minneapolis, MN.
Little About Harriet
What inspires your work?
The written word - poetry, history, cultural memory
What is something unexpected about you that often surprises people?
I have a sense of humor.
I'm not as tall as people think I am.
I collect plumb bobs, hose nozzles, and slingshots.
What do you consider your most significant achievement as an artist?
Beyond survival, to date my retrospective exhibition, ABRACADABRA and Other Forms of Protection, at at the Weisman Art Museum in 2020.
How has your work evolved over time?
If drawn, or charted, the evolution of my work would form a spiral path.
Is there a particular medium or subject you're drawn to, and why?
No, my work is conceptually based. The medium I use in any given work informs the content.
What's the most challenging part of being an artist?
To continue making work in the belief that art matters.
Do you have a favorite piece you've created? Why does it stand out?
In the mid-1970's I created Processional, a major work of sculptural woven garment-like forms that represent the stages of a woman's life:
The Innocent, The Siren, the Matriarch. the Morner and the Ancestor.
Where were you born and where did you grow up?
I was born in Duluth. I grew up in San Francisco.
Who are your artistic influences or mentors?
Early influences: Artists in the feminist movement. Artists: Lenore Tawney, Ruth Asawa. Josef Grau Garriga, Charlene Burningham. Writers: Jorge Luis Borges, Muriel Rukeyser, Denise Levertov,
What advice would you give to emerging artists?
Read eclectically, frequent museums, and spend as much time in your studio as possible. Believe in yourself, seek constructive criticism, be wary of criticism. Once you have mastered your skills, leave "home" and head for one of the world's art capitols for a while.
